Here’s Why Hilaria Baldwin’s Accent Sounds Surprisingly Different in The Baldwins After Being Accused of Faking It for Years
Hilaria Baldwin’s accent has been a topic of conversation for years and now the release of a new TLC reality series, The Baldwins, has brought the controversy back to the forefront. The series, which follows Alec and Hilaria Baldwin and their seven children, focuses on the family dealing with life in the spotlight, particularly after the incident in the set of Rust that saw Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter.
In 2020 Baldwin was called out on social media for faking a Spanish accent and heritage. Comedians like Amy Schumer even made jokes about it. Hilaria, who was born Hillary Hayward-Thomas, repeatedly claimed to be from Spain, despite the fact that she grew up and attended school in Massachusetts. During her wedding to Alec Baldwin in 2021, Hilaria even worse a traditional mantilla veil as a “nod to her roots” and all her children have Spanish names. There are also many videos of her speaking with a heavy accent and seemingly forgetting words in English.
Related: Meet Alec and Hilaria Baldwin’s kids
Her new series, The Baldwins, however, has Hilaria Baldwin sounding very different than what she did in those viral videos. So, what happened to Hilaria Baldwin’s accent? And what did she have to say about it in the new show?
What happened to Hilaria Baldwin’s accent?
It seems like the days of Baldwin speaking in a heavy Spanish accent are in the past. In the show, Baldwin speaks in an American accent—though there are times when she retains a little bit of the accent that made her infamous. Alec Baldwin even asks her at one point to slow down, remarking that she’s “speaking English in a Spanish cadence,” which seems like a nice way to nod to the accent issue without actively doing so.
Hilaria Baldwin does address the controversy over her accent, however, saying, “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me sad and it didn’t hurt and it didn’t put me in dark places. But it was my family, my friends, my community, who speak multiple languages, who have belonging in multiple places, and realize we are a mix of all these different things, and that’s gonna have an impact on how we sound, and an impact on how we articulate things, and the words that we choose, and our mannerisms. That’s normal. That’s called being human.”
Spanish continues to be a big part of Baldwin’s life, and she also addresses that in the show. “I’m raising my kids to be bilingual. I was raised bilingual. My nuclear family now lives over in Spain,” she says, as a photo of her parents—both American—but currently in Spain is shown. “I want to teach my kids pride in speaking more than one language. I think just growing up and speaking two languages is extremely special. I love English. I also love Spanish. And when I mix the two, it doesn’t make me inauthentic. When I mix the two, that makes me normal!”
Her kids continue to speak English while this is going on, even though Hilaria Baldwin addresses them in Spanish.
